Second rider sues; blames driver caused NY bus crash
NEW YORK (AP) — Passengers are challenging a bus driver's contention that he was well-rested and alert the morning his tour bus crashed into a pole in New York, killing 15 people on board.
In a lawsuit, Erold Jean Marie alleges driver Ophadell Williams was asleep at the wheel when the bus crashed on March 12 while returning from the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn.
Jean Marie was sitting in the back of the bus and saw the vehicle veer onto the rumble strip three times in a 20-minute period before the crash on Interstate 95, Herb Subin, his lawyer, said Thursday. He said Jean Marie did not see a tractor-trailer swerve toward the bus, as the driver has said.
The bus flipped on its side, and its roof was sheared off by a sign stanchion. Jean Marie suffered injuries to his shoulder and spine but was able to crawl out through the torn roof, Subin said.
"People were decapitated. You couldn't make a horror film that was nearly this bad," Subin said.